Zodiacal light, or the false dawn, is a faint, roughly triangular, diffuse white glow seen in the night sky that appears to extend up from the vicinity of the Sun along the ecliptic or zodiac. It is best seen just after sunset and before sunrise in spring and autumn. Zodiacal Light is composed of fine particles of dust in orbit around the sun and is visible because of scattered sunlight from the particles. It is so faint that either moonlight or light pollution renders it invisible.

If you look closely you will also see a meteor strike in the central bulge of the Milky Way. The orange/reddish colour on the horizon is the first faint light from the coming dawn.

Edit: I was never really happy with he original upload of this so I have made a few tweaks here and there to hopefully improve it.

I know I already commented on this image earlier, but on looking at it again, one of the things that seems really interesting about it is how the zodiacal light lookss like an arrow pointed almost straight at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Woohoo! I love it whe it gets dark Down Under 'cuz I know my buddy Greg will be out getting some great shots! Man, Milky Way, Zodiacal Light and Meteors! Waht could be better? Actually, I've seen that light and just thought it was light pollution--didn't know it had a name and was natural. You're a veritable FONT of information, my friend!

Thank you very much Mark I hope you get a chance soon. Speaking of imaging from my locale, that's exactly what I am doing now. Got a cracker of a night here and I don't plan on wasting a minute of it. Going to be an allnighter.